People From India

"Of course, there were exceptions in this scheme of things. For instance, to the British colonial eyes, the Manipuris, particularly the Meiteis, stood as "a singular oasis of comparative civilization" amidst "a congeries of barbarous people", an exception that nonetheless validated the oriental view of the Asian people."

"Manipur is home to the Meitei people, who are concentrated in the fertile Imphal valley, through which flows the Manipur river. The Meiteis are culturally rich, and an ethnic group distinct from others in the region, such as the Naga and the Kukis."

"Meiteis are fair-coloured and attractive people of medium height. The beauty of Meitei women is well-known. It is no surprise that they were favourite queens of the Ahom and Tripura kings. The men are equally handsome and sturdy."

"Gandhiji came to the conclusion that his personality was acting as an incubus and smothering free self-expression in the Congress and thereby arresting its natural growth, so that from being ‘the most representative and democratic organisation’ it stood in danger of degenerating into an organisation ‘dominated by one personality' in which ‘there was no play of reason.’ They could never realise the full potency of truth or non-violence that way. For that they had to learn ‘to think and act naturally."

"I never knew a national body of men more impregnated with the principles of vice, than the natives of Kashmire. The character of a Kashmirian is conspicuously seen, when invested with official power. Supported by an authority which prescribes no limits to its agents, in the accumulation of public emoluments, the Kashmirian displays the genuine composition of his mind. He becomes intent on immediate aggrandizement, without rejecting any instrument which can promote his purpose. Rapacious and arrogant, he evinces in all his actions, deceit, treachery, and that species of refined cruelty, which usually actuates the conduct of a coward. And it is said, that he is equally fickle in his connections, as implacable in enmity. In behalf of humanity, I could wish not to have been capacitated to exhibit so disgusting a picture, which being constantly held out to me for near three months, in various lights, but with little relief, impressed me with a general dislike of mankind. The Kashmirians are so whimsically curious that when any trivial question is proposed to them, its intention and purpose is enquired into with a string of futile interrogatories, before the necessary information is given; and a shopkeeper rarely acknowledges the possession of a commodity, until he is apprized of the quantity required. In examining the situation in which these people have been placed, with its train of relative effects, the speculative moralist will, perhaps, discover one of the larger sources from whence this cast of manners and disposition has arisen. He will perceive that the singular position of their country, its abundant and valuable produce, with a happy climate, tend to excite strong inclinations to luxury and effeminate pleasures; and he is aware, that to counteract causes, naturally tending to enervate and corrupt the mind, a system of religion or morality is necessary to inculcate the love of virtue, and especially, to impress the youth with early sentiments of justice and humanity. But he will evidently see, that neither the religious or the moral precepts of the present race of Mahometans contain the principles of rectitude or philanthropy; that, on the contrary, they are taught to look with abhorrence on the fairest portion of the globe, and to persecute and injure those who are not inclosed in the fold of their prophet. Seeing then the Kashmirians, presiding as it were at the fountain head of pleasure, neither guided or checked by any principle or example of virtue, he will not be surprized, that they give a wide scope to the passions of the mind and the enjoyments of the body."

"The natives of Kashmir have been always considered as amongst the most lively and ingenious people of Asia, and deservedly so. With a liberal and wise government they might assume an equally high scale as a moral and intellectual people, but at present a more degraded race does not exist. The complexion of the Kashmirians varies from dark to olive, and is sometimes ruddy and transparent: the eyes are large and full, the nose is well defined, and commonly of an aquiline form. The stature varies, but the Hindus who have least intermixed with foreign races are, in general, tall and symmetrically made. The inhabitants of the city are rather slight, but amongst the peasantry, both Hindu and Mohammedan, are to be found figures of robust and muscular make, such as might have served for models of the Farnesan Hercules. In character the Kashmirian is selfish, superstitious, ignorant, supple, intriguing, dishonest, and false: he has great ingenuity as a mechanic, and a decided genius for manufactures and commerce, but his transactions are always conducted in a fraudulent spirit, equaled only by the effrontery with which he faced detection. The vices of the Kashmirian I cannot help considering, however, as the effects of his political condition, rather than his nature, and conceive that it would not be difficult to transform him into a very different being. Religious bigotry forms no part of his character, and the teachers of either faith, Mullas or Pundits, are exceedingly ignorant, and possesses little influence. Since the establishment of the Sikh authority Hinduism predominates, and the country is infested by numerous and audacious bands of mendicants. They are patronized rather by the Government than the people, and the latter would gladly get rid of their presence. There seems, indeed, to be little attachment of either the Mohammedans or Hindus of Kashmir to their respective creeds, and I am convinced there is no part of India where the pure religion of the Gospel might be introduced with a fairer prospect of success."

"The Kashmirians are stout, well formed, and, as the natives of a country lying in the thirty-fourth degree of latitude, may be termed a fair people; and their women in southern France, or Spain, would be called Brunettes. But, having been prepossessed with an opinion of their charms, I suffered a sensible disappointment; though I saw some of the female dancers most celebrated for beauty, and the attractions of their profession. A coarseness of figure generally prevails among them, with broad features, and they too often have thick legs. Though excelling in the colour of their complexion, they are evidently surpassed by the elegant form and pleasing countenance of the women of some of the western provinces of India."

"A shudra who is ever engaged in self-control, truth and righteousness, I regard him a brahmin. One is a twice-born by conduct alone."

"Swami Vivekananda said that the four castes, by turn, governed human society. The brahmin dominated the thought-current of the world during the glorious days of the ancient Hindu civilization. Then came the rule of the kshattriya, the military as manifested through the supremacy of Europe from the time of the Roman Empire to the middle of the seventeenth century. Next followed the rule of the vaisya, marked by the rise of America. The Swami prophesied the coming supremacy of the sudra class. After the completion of the cycle, he said, the spiritual culture would again assert itself and influence human civilization through the power of the brahmin. Swami Vivekananda often spoke of the future greatness of India as surpassing all her glories of the past."

"An important Sanskrit inscription of the Andhra chief, Prolaya Nayaka mentions a Shudra’s movement to liberate a large territory from the Muslims in 1329. Then arose chief Prolaya of the Musumuri family of Shudra caste. Unable to resist his might, the Yavanas abandoned their forts and fled to unknown places. He restored the agrahara lands to the Brahmins and revived the performance of Vedic sacrifices. He cleansed the Andhra Pradesha of the pollution caused by the movements of the Turushkas by means of the butter smoke arising out of the sacrificial fire pits."

"High birth cannot be a certificate for a person of no character. But persons with good character can distinguish themselves irrespective of low birth."

"The Nanda dynasty rulers of northern India in the fourth century bce were Shudras as per Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist sources. This means Mahapadma Nanda, the great emperor of northern India, was a Shudra. Likewise, the next great emperor of India, Chandragupta Maurya was also a Shudra. The Maurya empire was the biggest that India ever saw, and for the first time an all-Indian nationality was achieved under a centralized government. It is important to note that a Shudra was the head of such an empire."

"As a matter of fact, we see Shudras occupying the position of kings and emperors in Vedic times.. Abmedkar] further confirms that some of the most eminent and powerful kings of ancient India were Shudras. The Mahabharata mentions a Shudra king conducting yajnas . And Ambedkar identifies this king with Sudas who is mentioned in the Rig Veda."

"Buddhist sources regard the powerful Pala dynasty, which ruled Bengal and other parts of eastern India for nearly four hundred years, from the mid-eighth to the eleventh century, to be of Shudra origin. The Buddhist text Manjushri-mula-kalpa states that Gopala, the founder of the Pala dynasty (750-1160 ce), was a Shudra. 75 The Pala dynasty monarchs were great patrons of Buddhism, and their copper plate inscriptions begin with an invocation to Buddha."

"The Shudras were one of the Aryan communities of the Solar race. . . . The Shudras did not form a separate Varna. They ranked as part of the Kshatriya Varna in the Indo-Aryan society.."

"Mina is the largest Scheduled Tribe of Rajasthan and the fourth largest in India. 150 They trace their descent from the Min-avatara or the fish incarnation of Vishnu, hence the name Mina. Lord Shiva is their supreme deity, and they also worship Hanuman, Sita-Ram and Radha-Krishna. In the 1961 and 1971 censuses, one hundred percent of Minas recorded themselves as Hindus."

"Though theoretically the position of the Shudras was very low, there is evidence to show that many of them were well-to-do. Some of them succeeded in marrying their daughters in royal families. Sumitra, one of the 3 wives of king Dasharatha, was a Shudra. Some of them even worked their way up to throne. The famous Chandragupta is traditionally known to be a Shudra."

"In medieval India, the Kakatiya dynasty monarchs (c. 1163-1323 ce) who ruled the Telugu-speaking Andhra region claimed themselves to be Shudras in their inscriptions. One peculiarity of medieval Andhra society was that many leading warrior families made no pretensions to be Kshatriyas and instead, proudly proclaimed their Shudra status by mentioning their descent from that of Lord Brahma’s feet. Shudras possessed the greatest degree of actual political power in medieval Andhra."

"But the catalyst who is credited with the construction of the 'Dravidian race' was a missionary-scholar from the Anglican Church. His name was Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814–91), an evangelist for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who combined the linguistic theory of Ellis with a strong racial narrative. He proposed the existence of the Dravidian race in his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Race, which enjoys extreme popularity with Dravidianists to this day. Bishop Caldwell proposed that the Dravidians were in India before the Aryans, but got cheated by the Brahmins, who were the cunning agents of the Aryan. He argued that the simple-minded Dravidians were kept in shackles by Aryans through the exploitation of religion. Thus, the Dravidians needed to be liberated by Europeans like him. He proposed the complete removal of Sanskrit words from Tamil. Once the Dravidian mind would be free of the superstitions imposed by Aryans, Christian evangelization would reap the souls of Dravidians... Because the assumption of Mosaic ethnology was well established, it was important to secure both families of languages within that framework. Ellis claimed that Tamil is connected with Hebrew and also with ancient Arabic. Their logic was that since William Jones considered Sanskrit to be the language of Ham, and other scholars claimed that Sanskrit descended from Noah's oldest son, Japheth, by the process of elimination the remaining son of Noah, Shem, must be the ancestor of the Dravidian people. This made Dravidians a branch of the Scythians or in the same family as Jews."

"An unhealthy movement has arisen in Tamil lands . . . which tends to make for a touchy and suspicious relationship between the two parts of our subcontinent. . . . the fact that the extra-origins of Aryanism has been a pernicious force amongst us and that its demolition would lead to greater harmony and cooperative creativity in India must not prejudice us as historians. We have to be calm and clear in our approach to the problem even while realizing that we cannot afford to be lax about a matter that keenly affects our collective future."

"The circularity of the ‘Ancestral North Indians’ (ANI) vs ‘Ancestral South Indians’ (ASI) concept is another case in point. Reich (2018) admits that he thought it up overnight simply to avert serious differences with his Indian collaborators. No precise definition was ever given to these two supposedly highly distinct groups; they were simply stated to be ‘genetically divergent’ and were used in several subsequent studies as though they had been rigorously established. Elsewhere, I showed that the populations sampled were very seriously restricted, since 18 states of India had either no representation or only one group represented in the 2009 study. Despite such a skewed distribution, Reich et al. exuded confidence in the newly coined terms and found it ‘tempting to assume that the population ancestral to ANI and CEU [Europeans] spoke ‘‘Proto-Indo-European’’ … ’ – a gratuitous association built, again, on circularity."

"But in the same year, a Hindu tribe called Dimasas had suffered immensely because of religious strife. This was reported by other prominent human rights watch groups in 2005 but ignored by USCIRF’s biased filtering. For example, the US-based Committee for Refugees and Immigrants mentioned that Dimasa tribes were becoming internally displaced refugees. Unfortunately, it failed to provide the religious dimension behind this displacement. It merely acknowledged that ‘about two thousand Dimasas, displaced by communal rioting in 2003 between the Dimasa and Hmar tribes over land and governance in the northeast, were still living in camps in southern Assam as well as in Manipur and Mizoram. About three thousand others had likely returned to their homes’. Major Anil Raman, a strategic analyst and commander in the Indian Army in the Northeast, explains the role of Western Christianity in this conflict: The Hmars are devout Christians while the Dimasas are mainly Hindus. The Hmar church-bodies and social networks, including those abroad, have been heavily involved in directing political activities. The Dimasas lack this external support and are extremely apprehensive and critical of activities of Hmar religious bodies. The unchecked and widespread proselytism by missionary groups to achieve a ‘Christian belt’ from Meghalaya to Nagaland has brought them into direct conflict with the Dimasas, who are staunch Hindus."

"After the exodus of 21 families to IS-controlled areas, we did lots of things. How many went after that? We have formed one of the best ATS [squads] in the country and it is doing a great job behind the scenes. That’s why there is not much concern. But we cannot be complacent in mounting our surveillance against suspected sleeper cells activities of terror outfits."

"The Brus and the majority Mizo community have been embroiled in a long standing ethnic conflict. Following ethnic violence in 1997 [i] and then again in 2009,[ii] thousands of Brus fled their homes in Mizoram to the adjoining state of Tripura. Approximately 35,000 Brus continue to languish in six relief camps at Kanchanpur in northern Tripura till this day."

"After the signing of the pact, Tripura CM said: “You cannot be refugees in your own country.”"

"Islamic sleeper cells exist in Kerala... According to [intelligence] inputs, Kerala is a recruiting ground for Islamic State as the people here are educated and the IS requires professionals like engineers and doctors. But we have dealt with it in a systematic way."

"Reangs or Brus are the second largest ethnic group in Mizoram. Their exodus in 1997 was spurred by violent clashes in Mamith subdivision, a Reang-dominated area, when they demanded creation of an autonomous council that was vehemently opposed by Mizo groups."

"(India looks) Better than the whole world (from up here in space)."

"Gond is numerically the largest Scheduled Tribe of India covering a vast geography across several states in central India. They were once politically powerful and in the medieval period ruled over as many as four separate kingdoms. According to their legends, their ancestors were adopted and nurtured by Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati. They worship Hindu deities and celebrate all major Hindu festivals like Holi, Diwali, Dussehra, Rakhi and Sankranti."

"The Gonds have played a respectable role in the history of medieval India... they have witnessed great political vicissitudes of fortune, and have survived. They still enjoy a high degree of culture. Their religion is Hindu. Some even retain the sacred thread. Some of thew Gods like Thakur Deo, Dulha Deo and Burha Deo command respect among local Hindus, The most interesting thing shout they marriage customs is that they are similar to those prevalent among Koch and Bodo tribes of the Northeast."

"I doubt that there is another place on earth where one can be more relaxed than in India, where the country offers you so much attraction and charm and where, at the same time, people are so gentle."

"If there are, as some tenets imply, a distinction of heavenly situations, will not this good-minded people occupy the first in rank; for nearest to the divine attributes of any thing you can have a conception of, is their kind-heartedness and probity. In a word, their manners are highly interesting, from their simplicity and liberal-mindedness; and I blush to feel how superior to all that Christianity can boast, of peace and goodwill towards men... I felt myself in danger of becoming a Braminate, though all the wealth of Indostan could not bribe me to become a Mahometan."

"…perhaps I should be ashamed to own that I had so far strayed from good-nature and good-sense, as to forget, that whatever reproaches may be deserved by some of the Hindus for their moral practices the fundamental principles of morality itself are so firmly implanted in the soul of man that no vicious practice and no mistaken code can change their nature... Our missionaries are very apt to split upon this rock, and in order to place our religion in the brightest light, as if it wanted their feeble aid, they lay claim exclusively to all the sublime maxims of morality and tell those they wish to convert, that their own books contain nothing but abominations, the belief of which they must abandon in order to receive the purer doctrine of Christianity. Mistaken men! Mistaken men! Could they desire a better opening to their hopes than to find already established that morality which says, it is enjoined to man even at the moment of destruction to wish to benefit his foes, ‘as the sandal tree in the instant of its overthrow sheds perfume on the axe that fells it.’… In short, I consider morality like the sciences and arts, to be only slumbering not forgotten in India; and that to awaken the Hindus to a knowledge of the treasures in their own hands is the only thing wanting to set them fairly in the course of improvement with other nations. Everywhere in the ancient Hindu books we find the maxims of that pure and sound morality which is founded on the nature of man as a rational and social being…. The Hindus claim the honour of having invented the method of teaching by apologues… A stranger in India will not fail to be struck with the indiscriminate respect which the lower classes of Hindus pay to the objects worshipped by all other sects. I have seen them making their little offerings, and joining the processions at the Mussulman feasts of Hassan and Hossein, and as frequently appearing at the doors of the Romish Portuguese chapels, with presents of candles to burn before the saints, and flowers to adorn the shrines; in short, whatever is regarded as holy by others, they approach with reverence, so much are uncultivated men the creatures of imitation and habit."

"The inhabitants of this land are religious, affectionate, hospitable, genial and frank. They are fond of scientific pursuits, inclined to austerity of life, seekers after justice, contented, industrious, capable in affairs, loyal, truthful and constant… They one and all believe in the unity of God, and as to the reverence they pay to the images of stone and wood and the like, which simpletons regard as idolatry, it is not so."

"[The Hindus are] a people, who from the earliest times have been an ornament to the creation – if so much can with propriety be said of any known people upon earth."

"Their honesty is proverbial. They borrow and lend on word of mouth, and the repudiation of a debt is almost unknown."

"When this empire, its polished people, and the progress which science had made amongst them, are attentively considered; when, at the same period, a retrospective view is thrown on the states of the European world, then immersed in, or emerging from, ignorance and barbarity, we must behold Hindostan with wonder and respect; and we may assert without forfeiting the claims of truth and moderation, that, however far the European world now out-strips the nations of the East, the followers of Brimha in the early period of life, were possessed of a fund amply stored with valuable materials of philosophy and useful knowledge. The humane mind will naturally feel a sense of sorrow and pity for a people, who have fallen from so conspicuous a height of glory and fortune, and who probably have contributed to polish and exalt the nations, who now hold them in subjection. Hindostan was overthrown by a fierce race of men, who in their rapid course of conquest, exerted the most furious efforts in leveling every monument of worship and taste. They massacred the priests and plundered the temples, with a keenness and ferocity, in which their first chiefs might have gloried. A people thus crushed, groaning under the load of oppression, and dismayed at the sight of incessant cruelties, must soon have lost the spirit of science, and the exertion of genius; especially as the fine arts, were so blended with their system of religion, that the persecution of the one, must have shed a baneful influence on the existence of the other. To decide on, or affix, the character of the Hindoo, from the point of view in which he is now beheld, would, in a large degree, be similar to the attempt of conveying an exact idea of ancient Greece, from the materials now presented by the wretched country.… The capacious space which Hindostan occupies on the face of the globe, the advantages it derives from soil and climate, and from its numerous rivers, some of them of the first class of magnitude, may be adduced as reasonable arguments of its having been peopled at a more early period of time than Egypt, which does not possess the like local benefits. If the degree of perfection which manufactures have attained, be received as a criterion to judge of the progress of civilization, and if it be also admitted as a test of deciding on the antiquity of a people, who adopt no foreign improvements, little hesitation would occur, in bestowing the palm of precedence on Hindostan, whose fabrics of the most delicate and beautiful contexture, have been long held in admiration, and have hitherto stood unrivalled. Let me conclude this comparative view, with observing, and I trust dispassionately, that when we see a people possessed of an ample stock of science of well digested ordinances, for the protection and improvement of society – and of a religion whose tenets consist of the utmost refinement, and variety of ceremony – and, at the same time, observe amongst other Asiatic nations, and the Egyptians of former times, but partial distributions of knowledge, law, and religion – we must be led to entertain a supposition, that the proprietors of the lesser, have been supplied from the sources of the greater fund…"

"When we read in the valuable production of those great Oriental scholars ... those of a Jones, a Wilkings, a Colebrooke, or a Halhed, - we uniformly discover in the Hindus a nation, whose polished manners are the result of a mild disposition and an extensive benevolence."

"The Indians, as known to all nations for many centuries, are the metal [essence] of wisdom, the source of fairness and objectivity. They are peoples of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare inventions. In spite of the fact that their color is in the first stage of blackness, which puts them in the same category as the blacks, Allah, in His glory, did not give them the low characters, the poor manners, or the inferior principles associated with this group and ranked them above a large number of white and brown peoples."

"This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and barbarous people...but a people for ages civilized and cultivated; cultivated by all the arts of polished life, whilst we were yet in the woods... There is to be found an ancient and venerable priesthood, the depository of their laws, learning, and history, the guides of the people whilst living, and their consolation in death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities, not exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in Europe; merchants and bankers, individual houses of whom have once vied in capital with the Bank of England; whose credit had often supported a tottering State, and preserved their governments in the midst of war and desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the earth."

"All the Grecian historians represent the Indians as people of greater size, and much more robust than those of other nations. Though this is not true in general, it is certain that the purity of the air, wholesome nourishment, temperance and education contribute, in an uncommon degree, to the bodily conformation, and to the increase of these people. Their new-born children lie always on the ground, as if they were thrown away or neglected; and they are never wrapped up with bandages, or confined in any other manner, as is done in Europe. Their limbs, therefore, can expand themselves without the least restraint; their nerves and bones become more solid; and when these children attain to the period of youth, they acquire not only a beautiful figure, but a sound, well turned, and robust bodily conformation. The frequent use of the cold bath, repeated rubbing the body with coconut oil and the juice of the Ingia plant, as well as their exercises, which have a great resemblance to the Juvenilia, and which I have often seen in Malabar, all contribute to increase their strength and agility. These advantages also are seldom lost, unless some of these young people abandon themselves to debauchery, or weaken their bodies by too great labour or excessive perspiration."

"In India I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it. Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything but possessed by nothing."

"This also is remarkable in India, that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians agree with the Lacedaemonians. Yet the Lacedaemonians have Helots for slaves, who perform the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less is any Indian a slave."

"The ancient civilisation of India differs from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, in that its traditions have been preserved without a break down to the present day. Until the advent of the archaeologist, the peasant of Egypt or Iraq had no knowledge of the culture of his forefathers, and it is doubtful whether his Greek counterpart had any but the vaguest ideas about the glory of Periclean Athens. In each case there had been an almost complete break with the past. On the other hand…to this day legends known to the humblest Indian recall the names of shadowy chieftains who lived nearly a thousand years before Christ, and the orthodox Brahman in his daily worship repeats hymns composed even earlier. India and China have, in fact, the oldest continuous cultural traditions in the world."

"The Hindoos are naturally cheerful, and are fond of conversation, of play, and of sports. They will spend almost the whole night in seeing dancing, and hearing music; yet none dance but the women, whose profession it is, and who devote themselves to the pleasure and amusement of the public. They are nevertheless extremely sober; they eat only twice a day, in the morning and evening.… The Hindoos are great observers of decorum; their manners are unaffected; they possess much natural politeness, and have an extraordinary degree of caution in not saying or doing any thing which they imagine may offend. The Brahmans in general shew the least civility, which is owing to the precedence they assume over the other casts, and the deference that is continually shewn them."

"One of the key policy objectives was to select such institutes that have the potential to break into the top 500 global rankings. So, those institutes that were sectorally focused, such as all IIMs, TIFR, TISS, ISI, Agri Research Institutes, etc, which are otherwise of a high calibre, were not considered for the IOE tag."

"At a policy level, the government has been moving in parallel on several fronts to liberalise higher education. For instance, the IIM Bill (the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017) that gives greater autonomy to all IIMs is one such track. For all institutes with NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) score of over 3.5, a higher degree of autonomy is another track."

"The Indian is docile, harmless, and industrious; and, when he has the opportunity, saving… under the guidance and protection of a European, whom he reveres, he will do almost anything; and even in the lowest castes, there is a degree of refinement about them which is surprising. They are gregarious in their habits, and, unlike the Negro, do not evince that love for a savage state of life which the latter is so fond of indulging, when not under restraint. They are quick, apt, and intelligent workmen, and make capital servants: the great secret in the management of them is kindness and fair dealing, with a tolerance of their harmless prejudices."

"We have carefully evaluated all the greenfield applications, with the sole criteria – do they have the required resources, land, team, funding? – to get into the global rankings of 500 institutes. You will be surprised to know the extent of the lack of resources. One of the applicant’s land is under litigation for over seven years, another one had indicated minuscule land size for the proposed institute, many did not have the core team in place, and a few of them had a narrow focus – for e.g., the focus could be limited to design, urbanisation, public health – which will not be eligible for global rankings. So, based on our careful evaluation, only one application had the requisite resources to convince us that it deserves the IOE tag."

"They do not practice deceit, and they keep their sworn obligations. ... They will not take anything wrongfully, and they yield more than fairness requires.”"